


awakening

by nebulera



Series: of beasts [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Imperial Era, M/M, Surprisingly healthy relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:15:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24648574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulera/pseuds/nebulera
Summary: Maul is coming around to him.Or, five times Maul surprised Rex and one time Rex surprised him.
Relationships: Darth Maul/CT-7567 | Rex
Series: of beasts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2021009
Comments: 7
Kudos: 85





	awakening

It was many months ago that had Rex approaching Maul on their ship with an unspecified and humble dinner. They were running low in that food department; they’d need to invest some time into that. He walked into his (their?) room and saw Maul sitting on his bed with his back to the wall, eyes closed; he sat on the bed across from him. He planned for them to share the food together, but upon greeting the Zabrak with a bowl of some mixed snacks, he’d opened one eye, taken a look at what Rex had and shook his head. 

“I can’t eat that,” he’d said and closed his eyes again.

Rex looked at him stupidly. “I get it’s not the most appealing thing in the world, but I haven’t seen you eat anything the last couple days, so—“ He held it out to him.

Maul pushed it back, annoyed. “It’s not about that. I can’t have solid food.”

“You… can’t.” Rex’s confusion found him thinking back on all the times he’d seen Maul physically eat something that required chewing, and he realized very quickly he never had. He rarely saw Maul eat at all, but when he did, he spared himself blended drinks or broths. “Why?”

Maul sighed and fully opened his eyes this time. He looked down at himself very briefly before he took his hand and made a horizontal slicing motion where his torso met cybernetics.

Rex didn’t know what to say.

“Most of my intestines are either not functioning or are just not there anymore. My mother did what she could to fix it but there’s only so much magic can do when it comes to fixing anatomy that’s rotting away somewhere in a junkyard.”

“Oh,” Rex said dumbly. He never forgot about Maul’s cybernetics; he just didn’t think he completely wrapped his brain around the extent of what General Kenobi did to him over thirteen years ago. That and Maul didn’t bring much attention to it, so neither does Rex. 

Now, a couple months later, it’s all Rex has in mind when he boils soup for Maul while they wait for the storm to pass over.

The cave brought them out of the snow but it’s still freezing, so Maul is tucked under two layers as he eagerly waits for Rex to join him. 

The fire burns near Rex’s knees where he stirs at what he’s been trying to prepare. He doesn’t want to make a big deal of it; Maul will put up a fight if Rex tries to take care of him, so he must be subtle about it. 

It doesn’t work. He approaches Maul with a bowl and steadier hands compared to Maul’s chilled ones that shake beneath his covers. “No,” he growls.

Rex sighs. “Come on, don’t do that,” he says. “It’s been three days since you’ve eaten anything. You need your strength, or else I’ll be dragging your hide through the fields.”

“I don’t need you to _feed me._ ”

Rex smirks. “I didn’t say I was going to, but since you brought it up…”

Maul looks away from Rex to gain some composure because even tucked under all those layers he looks about ready to throttle him. But eventually he sighs and gives him the _I give up_ look. “I hate you.”

Rex laughs. “No, you don’t,” he says and crawls closer with the steaming bowl and spoon.

…

“ _Ow!”_

“I told you to hold still.”

“You need to be gentler.”

Maul’s eyes flare. “I _am_ being gentle.”

Maul is no medic, Rex thinks, but he’s all he’s got for now. The blaster burn on his neck hurts like a sonofabitch. It was a very close match between him and the unfortunate Stormtrooper who’s now lying dead somewhere. But he’d gotten Rex right in the side of the neck; it’s only a graze. Any closer inward and Rex would be a dead man.

Their positions could be a little more ideal, but this is a consequence of Maul while he treated Rex’s burn with the medical supplies they had. Bacta is limited and Rex insisted they use burn ointment, so now Maul is sitting on their bunk, back to the wall, Rex in his lap, with a hand holding Rex’s chin up while he treats the mark on his neck.

His nursing skills left little to be desired. His fingers’ hold on his chin isn’t rough, but it’s firm enough that Rex would have to yank himself away to get out of it. Despite this, his fingers applying the balm were _mostly_ careful, but that didn’t stop the occasional stinging.

And Rex could tell whatever slip of the hand leaning towards roughness is probably intentional: Rex would understand the frustration if their positions were reversed. He had already.

Maul eventually lets go of his chin. “Leave it that way, Captain, and we’ll bandage it tomorrow.” Hmph. He’s being short with him.

“You’re mad at me,” Rex says. His hands had been on Maul’s shoulders for balance, but Rex leaves them there for comfort, though for himself or Maul he didn’t know.

“Maybe,” Maul says as he packs up the med kit, not looking at Rex. 

“Hey,” Rex says, one of his hands drifting up to brush his chin in a way that asks _look at me._ “I’m all right.”

Maul does look at him, his eyes conflicting with anger and relief. “Thanks to me.”

“You always know what to say.”

“It’s true,” Maul deadpans. “Troublemaker.”

Pot, meet kettle. Rex shakes his head and looks down and it hits him that he is still in Maul’s lap. Not that it’s uncomfortable, but that he’s starting to get a little too comfortable, and he’d like to sleep at some point tonight, preferably without an unwanted guest.

Maul’s face is not helping. They’re extremely close and Rex can see his face very honestly and clearly, including his eyes which are staring at him very…

There isn’t a word for how Maul is looking at him. 

Something shifts; in him or Maul—or both of them—he doesn’t know. Rex tries to account for how tired and worn out he is before he decides to do anything, but he doesn’t have to. Maul looks up at him and beneath hooded lids, leans forward until shadows envelop him and his lips press against Rex’s neck, right on the good side.

Rex gasps. That is very new. They’ve been _something_ as of late, but he couldn’t put a name to it. It was comfort they sought from one another; that’s why they slept beside each other almost every night. There was also an attraction there that was noted between them, but never acted on in the traditional way people did.

Rex cups the back of Maul’s head and tries to lean down to kiss him. Maul makes a noise and turns his head to avoid it. It disappointed him, but he wouldn’t push it.

They hold each other for a long time. Then, Maul shifts and his cybernetics press right against Rex, making him gasp and shift with it.

He moves with him _very_ slowly. He’s certain that Maul intends whatever he’s doing to him. This was not something off the cards, but also not discussed. Rex never assumed this was what they were, and even if he did, he never thought he would act on it. The fact of the matter is that he was very attracted to Maul and fully prepared to sit still with that desire pooling in him. He didn’t think Maul would be interested in giving since only Rex would be getting something physical out of it. Rex would have been content with never having Maul in that way.

He feels very selfish now, even with Maul edging him on, caressing him, and placing close-mouthed kisses to his neck and shoulders.

“Take what you need, Captain,” Maul says and Rex almost sobs.

…

“Kiss me,” Rex begs.

Maul looks at him with wide eyes and shakes his head, instead leaning down to press his lips to the corner of his jaw.

Later, when their cabin darkens and Rex catches his breath, he removes himself from Maul’s body to brace himself up on his elbow. He looks down at Maul, whose eyes are closed with his hands folded behind his head. Rex reaches down to brush his thumb across the tattoos that adorn Maul’s face. He doesn’t flinch. 

He’ll usually find himself doing this when they’re alone like this, and Maul lets him. 

Rex traces over the darkness of his brow, then over the trio of diamonds that fall vertically over his nose. He trails down to the sharp tattoos that point out from his Cupid’s bow, then he brushes over his upper lip and the dark corner of his mouth.

Maul opens one eye at him.

“Why won’t you kiss me?” Rex asks, tilting his head to the side.

Maul cocks a brow and sighs. “I can’t. I have a poisonous tar on my teeth. It’s harmless to me, but for others… it acts as another defensive measure.”

Rex’s brows raise in curiosity. Not what he was expecting.

Maul squints his eyes. “What did you think it was?”

“I just thought you had bad teeth,” Rex says honestly, to which Maul’s nose scrunches. Rex tries to stifle his laugh; Maul would do this to other people as a way to visibly show his disdain or to intimidate. For Rex it was both, but it’s been a long time since it’s worked on him. “You’re cute when you do that.”

“Please,” Maul huffs, then closes his eyes and turns his head away.

Rex shakes him. “Can’t you remove it?” Bad teeth isn’t really a deal breaker to him, but certain death is.

“I can.”

“Please.” Rex leans down to kiss and nose at his jaw. “Do it for me.” 

…

And that’s what he did.

To put it bluntly, Maul’s teeth are still disgusting-looking, but they are intact and tar free.

“You beg nicely,” Maul says, showing off the inside of his mouth.

“Mhm,” Rex says. “Come here.”

He’s holding Maul, so that could only mean one thing. Rex curls a hand over the back of his neck and pulls him close. Maul reacts with hesitancy, and, well, he just seems nervous.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever been kissed before?”

“I—no.”

This man has made Rex writhe against him, made him go speechless, and yet here Maul is, nervous about sharing their first kiss. He feels a hurt pool in his stomach—he hasn’t forgotten Maul’s past, but it makes sense. He knows he’s never had someone truly take care of him.

“That’s all right,” Rex says. “Can I?”

Maul nods.

His lips are warm like the rest of him. He’s not as stiff as Rex predicted; he responds very lightly and Rex kisses him softly, pulls away, kisses him again, pulls away. Maul’s eyelids flutter open, then grow heavy and he drags Rex back in. Rex doesn’t think too hard about it when he bites his lower lip.

Maul reacts with a subtle gasp and reaches up to rest his hand over where Rex’s lies on his neck.

Rex pulls away. “Okay?”

“I don’t know,” Maul says, a small grin on his face. He licks over his lips. “It’s wet.”

He has a way with words.

“That’s… one way to put it.”

…

  
  


After Fives, but before the Outer Rim sieges, he’d been shot for the umpteenth time in his shoulder from the back. Their mission was successful, and he’d been treated and sent to rest and heal in the triage as they waited for their leave. But even during his healing, he was in pain—it was a combination of the burn in his shoulder, his week-long headache, and his overall exhaustion that made him curl in on himself and try to stifle any whimpers. He didn’t notice General Skywalker walk in with a pensive look on his face. Rex has asked him if everything was fine and Anakin had said yes, and asked if he would like his help.

He’d remembered echoes of his brothers about their Jedi—their compassion came not with just actions and words, but it lay beneath their very fingertips, a power not unlike their telekinesis or their mind-tricks. Anakin had been a powerful Jedi, but he was still young. He still had ways to go when it came to his Knighthood, and he couldn’t Force-heal the way someone like General Plo could. Not even Obi-Wan could, yet. But they could aid someone in blocking their pain.

That’s what his general did for him that day. He never did before, perhaps because he hadn’t mastered it yet, but he’d taken Rex’s hand, rested his fingers against his temple and let his pain flow out of him until he was finally able to collapse and sleep.

Rex wakes with that uncomfortable pain and the fog of the distant memory in his eyes.

He’s not at war anymore, not with the Separatists. It’s been a while since it all ended, but it didn’t make the lack of closure any easier to stomach.

He’d been injured since yesterday—a chase ended all right for them but not before it was too late to hear the blast and falling debris. His leg had been pummeled. Maul had to drag him from the filth, and grab him swiftly. He helped him run back to their ship while his leg throbbed, red with stress and littered with purple bruises, but he was going to be fine. Maul wrapped up his leg and put a pillow beneath it for his comfort before they went to bed. 

When he finally pushes the thought of his general away before the hurt in his chest overwhelms him, he looks away from the ceiling and sees Maul kneeling at the foot of the bed. It’s dark, but he can see that he’s carefully taking Rex’s wrapped calf in his hands and tries to readjust it back onto the pillow. It must have fallen during the night. He’s doing it so quietly and softly; he must not know that Rex is already awake and indeed watching him.

Sith do not heal, and pain is a part of their version of growth and prosperity. And even though Maul doesn’t regard himself to be a Sith any longer, his training simply doesn’t allow him to attain the art the Jedi mastered.

Focusing his own vision, he studies Maul’s face, pensive and worried. He looks uncharacteristically unnerved and, without falter, something shifts Rex’s chest. Maul’s concern bleeds off of him in a way that makes him look like a dream. His shoulders fold inwards and his brow is curled up. In this light, his yellow eyes almost look green.

He may not be able to block Rex’s pain, but he does what he can with the tender palms of his rough hands and takes care of him anyway.

When he looks up at Rex and realizes he’s being watched, he fully expects his expression to change like the flip of a coin.

But it doesn’t. In the dark of night, he doesn’t realize how open he looks to Rex. It may have taken a while, but Rex has him now.

He crawls back up and doesn’t say a word when he takes him into his arms, running his fingers over Rex’s temples and the chilled skin of his arms.

…

+1

  
  


“Got a minute?”

_“I answered you.”_

“Just making sure.”

Across from Rex lay Echo, wrapped up in his bedding. Next to him was Crosshair, Hunter, and Wrecker. They set up camp a few kilometers from the base and decided they’d get one more night’s rest before they moved in.

Rex is keeping watch for the next couple hours until he wakes Crosshair for his turn. He called Maul, but decided against a hologram. As much as he wanted to see him, the blue light with the audio would likely jolt one of the vod from their sleep. He balances the arm with his communicator on his knee.

“Is all okay with my ship?”

_“Hmph. Your ship. I’m the one who stole it.”_

“Yeah, but I helped you steal it. And I fly it more than you.”

_“Debatable.”_

Rex shakes his head but decides to let it lie.

“We need a droid or two for her,” he says. Repairs were a pain for just the two of them.

_“We don’t need droids.”_

“Correction: you need a droid or two for when I’m gone.”

_“Was it your intention to indirectly insult me the entire time you decided to call me?”_

“Maybe I just needed to hear your voice, sweetheart.”

Maul says nothing at this, but Rex can fully picture the look on his face.

_“Decadent.”_

Rex smiles softly. “Miss you.”

_“I miss you.”_

Rex looks across the way at his sleeping crew. His second reunion with Echo was bittersweet, and where the Empire had taken a toll on Rex and left him deflated, Echo was angry. He was angry at what became of their brothers, as were the other four. Ever since the fall of the Republic, they’ve been seeking out what clones remained and working with what they could to remove their chips and free them. The feud with regs had become obsolete. Finding them had been the hope Rex had gone so long without.

“We’ve got him this time, Maul.” Rex doesn’t feel the need to specify who. It’s been a few weeks since they’d parted and Rex joined their mission. Weeks of trailing and listening had gotten them right to where Rex’s heart was missing

_“Kote.”_

Every so often, the little Mando’a he knows will come out. It makes Rex’s heart sing hearing his older vod’s name coming from him.

“They used his number on our scanners.” Rex’s breath comes out short. “I heard his voice, I know it’s him.”

The crashed venator is a distant memory, though not forgotten. It isn’t forgiveness that Maul seeks from Rex, nor redemption that he seeks from Maul. They were enemies at the time and the situation was always going to fall apart, no matter what. If either of them had the knowledge of what they would become to one another, different steps would have been taken, and Rex wouldn’t have the hole in his chest that had been carved out as he and Ahsoka dug those graves, on top of the knowledge that his brothers were suffering across the galaxy. But that didn’t happen, and all they can do is move forward.

Rex knows about Savage—it’s not something brought up as frequently as Rex when he speaks of Cody, or Fives, or Jesse. Maul had been blinded by the prospect of regaining his power and being beside Sidious, that by the time the fog of betrayal dissipated and he finally realized he would only ever have Savage, it was too late. Maul at least knows what this means to him.

Cody is likely the only clone in the entire base, and tomorrow they will descend.

_“You will be careful.”_

“Of course.” It sounds reminiscent of those Jedi mind tricks, but Rex laughs at how Maul never dared. He looks around camp and remembers what he’s still awake for. Maul is a pleasant distraction, but still a distraction nonetheless. “I think I better cut the line.”

He hears Maul shuffling. _“All right.”_

Rex yawns. “Okay. I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

The words leave his mouth before he can think about it, and Rex’s eyes go wide briefly before he settles with himself, staring expectantly at the white glow from his gauntlet. It’s true. He wouldn’t go back on it. Seconds pass slowly as Rex stares down at the soft glow of his com. He should’ve hung up by now, but he’s undeniably waiting for whatever snide comment Maul tries to respond with.

Instead, he’s met with nothing. To shock Maul into silence is a feat Rex had not yet achieved. He’d have patted himself on the back if this wasn’t so precious to him.

He pictures those yellow eyes so clearly in his mind. He wishes badly at this moment that he could see him.

_“I—“_ Maul stops.

Rex smiles.

_“Come back to me in one piece, Captain.”_ Then, the light goes out. But Rex hears what goes unsaid. They have time.

He grabs his vambrace at the wrist and pulls it to his chest, holding it against his hopeful heart.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally snippets of concepts I wanted to explore with them but could never fit in a longer fic. Then I realized the all have something in common which is Rex finding out something about Maul where his reaction ranges from “whatever ok” to “holy shit I love this sith-man with issues.”
> 
> Comments are always appreciated!
> 
> yay or nay


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